


Something New, Something Brave

by lovelyendings



Series: Because the last place I expected to end up was in your arms [1]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Doug is barely in this, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Getting Together, Multi, Past Relationship(s), also audrey is mentioned but like she doesn't suck, carlos lonnie and jay appear in like one scene, chad is mentioned as being a lovable idiot, just short and fluffy, only fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-30
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-11 07:07:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13519074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelyendings/pseuds/lovelyendings
Summary: In which Ben learns something new about the Isle, and something new about himself.





	Something New, Something Brave

“Ok, Tell me something nobody else knows about you.” Mal said after thinking for a moment.

After deciding they needed to see each other more, Mal had suggested Ben take her on another picnic for their next date. Things had become chaotic for Ben in the two months since he had been crowned king, but he was trying to see Mal as much as he could. Even finding time for this date had been hard for Ben, but he was happy they could have this time together.

“Something nobody else knows, Hmm. What if it involves somebody else?” Ben asks after a moment.

“Fine, something you've never told anybody else about. Better?” Mal says, punctuating her sentence with a bite of strawberry.

“Yea, uh.” Ben pauses for a moment to think, then lights up when he thinks of something. “When I was five I married Chad.”

Mal almost spits out strawberry at that. “You married Chad?!” Mal stares at him for a moment before she starts laughing uncontrollably.

“Yep.” Ben says slightly blushing. “We decided we were in love and wanted to get married in the castle’s garden. Lonnie was our minister, and Audrey picked a bunch of flowers from the garden and kept throwing them at us since she decided she was going to be the flower girl.” Ben smiles, thinking back on how much easier life was back then.

“I wish I could've been there to see that.” Mal says when she finally stops laughing.

“Ok your turn, something you've never told anybody else about.”

“Ok well, technically I never told the boys about this, they figured it out on their own, but me and Evie dated.”

“Wait, you and Evie?” Ben pauses for a second. “When?”

“We started going out shortly after Evie started to go to school with me, Jay and Carlos on the Isle, and we dated until we got the proclamation to come here.” Mal answers, busying herself with food to avoid Ben’s gaze. “We broke up because I figured Auradon wasn’t going to work out for me, but I knew she deserved better than the Isle. And if her falling in love with a prince kept her from returning to that hell hole, then who was I to stand in the way of that.”

Ben takes a moment to sit and process that, then asks the real question on his mind. “Are you still in love with her?”

“Yea I am.” Mal admits still not looking at Ben.

“So is this you breaking up with me?” Ben asks

“No it’s nothing like that. I just, ughhhh” Mal groaned and dropped her head into her hands. “Why is this so much more difficult here than on the Isle.”

Ben sits quietly, and lets Mal collect her thoughts.

“On the Isle, it wasn’t uncommon for people to date more than one person at time. Sometimes everyone involved was dating each other, and sometimes they weren’t, but it was never behind anyone’s back. It was just kind of an accepted part of life.” Mal pauses and Ben opens his mouth to say something, but Mal continues. “It’s not that I’m asking for that, I just want you to understand where I’m coming from, and why me admitting I love someone else doesn’t mean I’m going to immediately break up with you.” She looks down and starts to play with the grass as if that will immediately end the conversation her and Ben are having.

Ben sits to think for a moment, then says, “Ok. I- I think I get it, I just-. Give me a little time to process this, because this is completely new to me.” He leans over to pull Mal into a hug. “I am very glad you don’t want to break up with me.”

Mal smiles up at him. “You’re stuck with me for as long as you want me.” After Ben releases her from the hug, she leans back and smirks at him. “So tell me more about this wedding with Chad.”

\--------

The idea that it was possible to be in love with more than one person at a time wouldn’t leave Ben’s head. He found himself thinking back to when he had first started dating Audrey, and had tried to invite Chad along on their dates, because the three of them were better together. Later on he’d realize that he was just as interested in guys as he was in girls, but the idea that he’d been in love with them at the same time was new. 

Besides coming to that conclusion Ben found himself watching Mal more than he usually did. Well more like watch how she interacted with Evie. It wasn’t that Ben didn’t trust Mal, but he wanted to see if he could tell Mal’s feelings for Evie if he looked carefully enough. And the more he watched the more he saw the hints staring him right in the face. How physical Mal and Evie were with each other, constantly finding a reason to touch each other, almost as if to prove to the other that they were still there, that they hadn’t been left alone. How often he caught Mal looking at Evie, and how often he found Evie looking at Mal. The more he watched the more he could see the love they had for each other, and could see why Mal was so in love with Evie.

Evie was just as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside. She was kind, caring and perceptive. She always had an eye out for her friends, ready to defend them, cheer them up or help them anyway she could. She was always ready to make new friends, but was fiercely loyal to her inner circle, which had at some point grown to include Ben. 

Today for example she had come to lunch and did what she always did, sat down and started passing out the food she knew everyone loved, but always forgot to get. Mal got her cup of strawberries, Carlos got some sort of chocolate dessert, Jay got his extra roll or two, Doug got tater tots, and Ben got another glass of juice. Generally about 10 minutes into lunch their table would turn into a game of musical chairs, everybody moving around to talk to different people without yelling over each other. Evie would always take this opportunity to ask everyone about their day, always remembering specific details that had been mentioned in previous days, how Dude’s obedience training was going, the next big event Mal and Ben had to go to, what happened at the previous day’s tourney practice. She’d patiently listen, always ready to give advice, or just let someone rant. Then she’d rant about whatever had bugged her, but always found a way to put a funny spin on everything. But every day without fail she’d ask Ben about how the new proclamation was coming, and give her advice on the issue of the day related to it. Today when she brought it up, Ben brought up the current wall he had been hitting, what to do with the kids younger than five when they were brought over from the Isle. 

“I mean from the stories I’ve heard from you guys, I want to get them off that island, but I can’t put them directly into a school environment like I can the older kids. And I don’t want to separate any siblings, but with age differences I might have to, and I just don’t know how I can fix all of this.” Ben explained then dropped his head onto the table. “I mean I’m trying to fix the issues my dad made, but there’s so many different little problems popping up along the way, that I don’t want to make the situation worse for any of the kids than it already is.”

Evie started rubbing Ben’s back. “You’ll figure it all out, because you care enough to figure it out and figure it out right.” Evie pauses for a second to think. “Now personally I think you should find somewhere to house all the Isle kids together before you start them in school. Give them some time to adjust to the situation and all the new rules that Auradon brings. Plus then you won’t have to separate any siblings immediately, but instead give them the opportunity to become more comfortable with Auradon and how things work over here before you do”

“That makes a lot of sense Evie.” Ben said after a moment of thinking about it. “Then that way we can bring all the kids over at one time, and it gives me more time to find permanent homes for everyone. Yeah this will work perfectly. Thanks Evie, you’re a genius!” He sits up and starts to lean toward her before he realizes he was going to kiss her.

“Oh I don’t know about that, but I’m glad you think my idea will work.” Evie said with a smile not seeming to notice that Ben had almost tried to kiss her. “Just let me know if you need anymore help with figuring out the logistics, I want things to work out well when you bring everyone over.”

“Of course Evie, I’ll make sure to keep you involved, you definitely have some good ideas and look at things from a different perspective than me.” Ben says then turns to his food.

After a minute of eating in relative silence Evie looks up. “Hey, Ben there was something I wanted to talk you about.”

“Yeah of course Evie, what’s up?”

“Well Mal told me that you guys had-” 

“Evie!!!” Lonnie yells interrupting Evie. “Can you come over here and tell these two idiots that it isn’t a good idea to stick Dude in a purple dragon costume and get him to chase after Chad since Chad is afraid of Maleficent.”

“Come on Lonnie, you know he’s dumb enough that he’d probably think it was actually Maleficent.” Jay says.

“That doesn’t make it a good idea!” 

“I’m sorry I have to go deal with this. But we’ll talk about that thing later.” Evie says before going to help Lonnie yell at Jay and Carlos about their dumb ideas.

As Ben watched her talk Jay and Carlos out of what would honestly be very funny, he realized Mal wasn’t the only one in love with Evie, he was too.

\--------

The next day Ben found himself standing in front of Mal and Evie’s room ready to knock, but without a clue of what to say. Should he bring up his crush on Evie? Should he leave it be? Should he see if Mal and Evie were both open to dating him. Finally he decided to knock and let whatever happened, happen.

And of course the worst case scenario happened, Evie opened the door. “Hey, Ben! Mal went to go get something from Lonnie, but she’ll be back soon. I’m about to head out on a date with Doug, but if you want you can keep me company while I get ready.”

“Yeah, sure, of course.” Ben gets out with a smile, trying not to freak out. He follows her into her and Mal’s room. Even though by this point he’d been in the room a million times, he found himself awkwardly standing around.

“Feel free to move some of the clothes on my bed over and sit on it.” Evie called over her shoulder as she walked to go get something. So Ben carefully starts to stack the clothing towards the end of Evie’s bed, but he finds himself staring at one of the dresses. “You ok Ben?”

Ben looks up to see Evie staring at him with one eyebrow raised. “Yeah, I just. This is incredible, the design work, the embroidery. Not that you don’t do a really good job with everything you make, but this one is on a whole different level.”

Evie looks down and blushes. “Thanks Ben. That means a lot to me.” She starts walking over to the mirror to finish her make-up. “Let me know if you ever want me to make a suit for you. I’ve got a few ideas that I think would look really good on you.”

“I’d love that. I have a feeling that anything you make will look good on anyone.”

They sit in silence for a few minutes while Evie does her makeup and Ben overanalyzes everything he’s said since he got there. He has a tendency to put his foot in his mouth when he’s around people he’s interested in, and forget how to make conversation at all.

Finally Evie asks, “So how’s it been being King? Everything you thought it would be?”

“Yeah. It’s a little bit tougher than a thought it was going to be, but I’m glad my dad slowly started transferring responsibilities to me early so I could ease into it. I don’t think I’d be able to handle it near as well if he hadn’t done that.”

“And have you made any progress on the proclamation since yesterday?”

“Not near as much as I wish I had. The council keeps saying we should wait a little longer to see how you guys work out, even though it’s been 2 months without an incident. And Maleficent wasn’t your guys’ fault, and neither was Parent’s Day, so I stand by the fact that you guys haven’t caused a single incident. Plus anytime I sit down to work on drafting the proclamation, something more urgent is shoved in my face, or there’s an event, or I have class. And there’s logistics, like finding the spot where we can temporarily house all the kids, that need to be figured out beforehand, but Fairy Godmother and I can’t work on fixing that until the council votes that more Isle children can be brought over. So basically I haven’t gotten anywhere, but I wish that wasn’t the case.”

They sit in silence for a moment after Ben finishes, before he realizes he brought up the Maleficent and Parent’s Day incidents. 

“Not that the Coronation or Parent’s Day get brought up a lot, it’s just that there are some people who are looking for any reason to not bring kids over from the Isle.” Ben stops for a second then realizes that he made everything sound even worse.

“I mean it’s not like there’s a lot of people who aren’t happy that you guys here, some of the other royals have been petitioning to bring the kids from the Isle over for a while, and the others will come around eventually, and-” Ben stops and groans, “I keep messing this up, I’m sorry.”

Evie finally turns around to look at him. “Ben it’s fine. I know a lot of people still aren’t very happy with us being here, but I know that you’re in our corner and that’s all that matters to me. Ok? So you can drop it.” She turns back around and continues on with her makeup.

They sit in awkward silence for a couple of minutes before Ben remembers that Evie had wanted to talk to him about something yesterday. “Hey Evie what did you want to talk to me about yesterday?”

“Oh it was nothing, don’t worry about it.” Evie says quickly.

“Are you sure about that, cause yesterday it seemed like it was pretty important to you and-”

Right then Mal comes in. “Hey Evie. Hi Ben.” Mal stops and turns to look at Ben. “What’re you doing here Ben?”

“I managed to get some free time, and I figured we could spend it together, but when I got here you were at Lonnie’s, so I figured I’d keep Evie company.” Mal continues to stare at him confused and thoughtful, like she’s trying to figure out if they have a date she forgot about or figure out what he had to cancel to get free time with her.

“Well I think Doug is waiting on me, so I’m gonna head out, but I’ll see you two lovebirds later.” Evie says after an awkward moment of nobody saying anything, grabbing her purse and slowly inching towards the door.

“Ok, bye Evie.” Mal says, then grudgingly hugs Evie when Evie leans in for one.

“Bye Evie. Have fun.” Ben says after getting off her bed, and awkwardly shifts from foot to foot until Evie leaves.

The second the door shuts Ben throws himself face first onto Mal’s bed and groans into one of Mal’s pillows.

“That was just painful to watch” Mal says after a moment.

“Shut up” Ben says slightly muffled by the pillow. He decides he’s going to die of embarrassment right then and there. “I don’t do well around pretty people who I’m interested in.”

“Oh so is that why you went back to acting the same as you did when we first came from the Isle?” Mal asks. Ben can feel her smirking from the other side of the room without even looking at her. “Did you think I was pretty? Or was it Evie?”

“I may have thought all four of you guys were attractive.”

“Oh this is too good. So you got over it, but now it’s back, so what happened?”

“I may have realized that I’m in love with Evie.” Ben mutters into the pillow.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.” Ben rolls over to glare at Mal. She’s obviously not intimidated by him because she starts laughing. “You look like a kicked puppy.” 

“I said I may have realized that I’m in love with Evie.” 

Mal gets a big smile on her face. “And when did this happen?”

“This week, I was trying to figure out why you were so in love with her, and realized along the way that I was in love with her too.”

“Oh yea?” Mal says with a knowing smirk.

“So what do we do?” Ben asks rolling onto his back. 

“What do you want to do?”

Ben pauses to think for a moment. “I want to see if something could work with all three of us.”

 

“But?” Mal prompts.

 

Ben lets his head flop onto the mattress. “But Evie’s dating Doug, and she’s happy with him, and I don’t even know if she’s into me.”

“So?” Mal asks patiently.

“So I guess until something changes all we do can sit by and wait until something changes.”

“And enjoy each other’s company and the fact that we’re dating each other.”

“Well I figured that was a given.”

“So what’s the plan for today then?” 

“Honestly I didn’t think that far ahead, I just wanted to run my shocking new development by you.”

“Cool, I have a test tomorrow, wanna come to the library and help me study?”

“Sure I have some homework I’ve been avoiding that I can work on.”

Neither of them move. Finally Ben sighs and rolls onto his side to look at Mal. “Or we could stay here and take a nap, because being king is exhausting, and I just want to spend time with my girlfriend.”

Mal smiles, “ I like that plan better,” she says as Ben pulls her into his arms.

\-----

Ben figures nothing is going to change for a while, but he’s ok with that. He figures that these things take a while, and that that will give him a chance to deal with this new development in his life. It’s also why he’s shocked when things change the next day. Evie sits next to him during lunch. It’s nothing big, but it still seems like a huge flashing sign. Evie never sits next to him, she sits directly across from Mal, in between Doug and Carlos. But now she’s sitting next to him, in Lonnie’s normal spot. Ben looks around to see shocked faces from everyone else sitting at the table, but no one says anything. Evie just acts as if nothing is wrong and starts eating. When Lonnie shows up, she shrugs and sits in Jay’s spot, who then ends up in Evie’s old spot. And the new set-up works fine, but that doesn’t change the fact that Evie just changed their entire routine.

Finally when Doug sits down Ben decides to ask her about it. “Don’t you want to sit by Doug?”

Evie doesn’t even look up from her food. “No I’m good right here.” Ben quirks an eyebrow at her. Finally she looks up at him. “We broke up yesterday.”

“Oh.” Ben tries to figure out how to respond, finally deciding on, “How are you doing?”

“I’m fine.” She shrugs, “It was mutual, we were both still hung up on other people.” Evie says, not looking up from her food.

“Oh. Well I’m still sorry it didn’t work out.” 

Ben sits there for a moment trying to figure out what to say, but then Jay and Carlos are trying to get his attention, wanting to tell him about something stupid Chad did during Tourney practice, officially changing the subject. They manage to get through lunch with only minimal awkwardness, although Evie keeps looking at Mal, realizing she was looking at Mal, looking away, then looking almost guiltily at Ben, almost as if she’s trying to see if Ben caught her staring. Finally when Ben gets up to throw away his trash and head to class, Evie hurries after him.

“Hey can I walk with you to class? I- I need to talk to about that thing I’ve been trying to talk to you about for a few days now.”

“Yeah of course. What’s up?”

Evie awkwardly adjusts the books in her hands before starting. “I know that Mal told you about the fact that we used to date on the Isle, and-” Evie pauses to take a breath to steady herself, “And I want you to know that just because I broke up with Doug, that doesn’t mean I’m going to try and get back with Mal. You make her incredibly happy, and as long as she’s happy, I’m happy.”

They walk in silence for a moment before Ben decides to ask the question he already knows the answer to. “Is she the reason you broke up with Doug?”

Evie looks down at the ground. “I- Yes she’s the person I’m still hung up on. I mean she’s not the entire reason for the break-up. I realized that me and Doug were better as friends, and there’s another person who I’m interested in that’s even more unattainable than Mal is, but yeah she’s the main reason.”

They walk in silence for a minute, the silence building between them, before finally Evie says, “Please don't be mad. I get if you are but you're super important to me and so is Mal and I don't want things to change.”

Ben stops and looks at Evie. “I'm not mad, I could never be mad at you, I was just thinking, ok?” Evie nods, and they start walking again. 

“So,” Ben says trying to be casual, “ Who’s the other person you're interested in?”

Evie gets a guilty look on her face. “It doesn't matter. They'd never be interested and they're currently dating someone.”

“And what if that changed?”

“They'd still be out of my league, plus that would mean Mal-” Evie immediately shuts up after realizing what she had just said.

Ben stops in the middle of the hallway trying to process what just happened. 

“Well I think I'm just going to head to class now and-” Evie says starting to head towards the end of the hallway, refusing to look at him. 

“Evie wait.” Ben calls. Evie stops and turns to look at him. 

“Look can we just forget that happened. I really am happy for you and Mal and-”

“Evie. Relax.” Ben heads toward her, wanting to see exactly how she reacts to what he has to say, ”I had a conversation with Mal yesterday. Do you want to know what it was about?” Evie looks away. “Because I think you'll want to know what it was about.”

“Fine, what was it about?” Evie says still not looking at him. 

“We spent quite some time after you left talking about how in love with you we both are.” Evie’s head shoots up to stare at him. 

“Ben I swear if you're making this up because you think this is funny…”

“I'm not joking. Ask Mal if you want to. Both of us are interested in you.” Right then the bell rings. “I need to go, but I'll see you later.” Ben turns and walks to class trying his best not to turn around and look at Evie who's still standing in the middle of the hall. 

\-----

Ben’s trying his hardest not to focus on the conversation he had with, but he can’t. He tries to focus on his class work, and later on his kingly duties, but it keeps popping up in his head. He's finally sitting down to work on the proclamation to bring more kids over from the isle, when someone knocks on the door to his office. 

Mal peeks her head in, “You busy?”

Ben shakes his head, “Nothing that can’t be put off, what’s up?”

Mal holds up a finger, then the door shuts. Ben hears a struggle, then a muffled argument. Finally Mal opens the door, and holds it open and Evie walks in head held high. She walks over to his desk, Mal following close behind. Evie takes a breath like she’s going to say something, then stops. She looks over her shoulder at Mal, and they seem to have a silent conversation. Finally Evie looks back at him. “If you’re still interested, I’d like to date both you and Mal.”

Ben sits there for a second processing what Evie said and then says, “Ok.”

“Ok? All you’re gonna say is ok?” Mal practically yells.

“I’m sorry I’m honestly having a hard time processing everything that’s happened today, so I apologize if I’m not being as romantic as you think I should be.” Ben exasperatedly tells Mal. He then turns to Evie, and takes her hand, “My dearest Evelyn, would you give me the pleasure of being your boyfriend.” 

“Of course my dearest Ben, I would be honored” Evie replies with a curtsey, then bursts out laughing causing Ben to start laughing too. 

“Do you approve of how I asked out our girlfriend Mal?” Ben says once his laughter has subsided. 

“I don’t know,” Mal says throwing her arms around her boyfriend and girlfriend, “I think it could’ve been even better than that, but I think you can make it up to me and her by taking us out on extremely romantic date.”

“Well I’ll make sure to do that.” Ben says, then leans in to give Mal a kiss. He then turns to Evie, and begins to lean in, “My fair lady, would you mind too terribly if I kissed you?”

“Not at all, kind sir.” Evie replies then leans in to kiss him.

“Y’all can cut the formal act, you know.” Mal says, “It’s starting to get annoying.”

“Well then why would we stop it?” Evie asks, “Don’t you know that it’s our life goal to annoy you?”

Ben watches his girlfriends jokingly bicker with a smile, excited for the future these two held for him.


End file.
